Christian
For other uses of the term Christian, see Christian (disambiguation).A
Christian is a follower of
Jesus of Nazareth, referred to as
Christ. Christians believe Jesus to be the Son of God, who lived a life befitting that of the creator of the universe, free of
sin, who at the end of his earthly life was
crucified, and then on the third day,
rose from the dead, and later
ascended into heaven. These beliefs are held by the vast majority of Christian denominations.
Christians believe that Jesus offers
salvation, and that it is only possible because of him. Christians are a part of
Christianity. Christians identify themselves as
monotheistic, believing that there is one
God. Most sects incorporate
God as a
perichoresis of three persons:
Father (the Source, the Eternal Majesty); the
Son (the eternal
Logos or Word, incarnate as
Jesus of Nazareth); and the
Holy Spirit (the
Paraclete or advocate). Today, it is estimated that there are around 2.1 billion Christians in the world making up 33% of the world population, with the largest
Christian denomination being
Roman Catholicism.
[Religions by Adherents Adherents.com.]As a noun, Christian is an
appellation and
moniker deriving from the appellation "
Christ", which many people associate exclusively with Jesus of Nazareth. The first known usage of this term can be found in the
New Testament of the
Bible, in : "The disciples were called Christians first at
Antioch." (Gr. and variant ,
Strong's G5546). The term was first used to denote those known or perceived to be disciples of Christ.
As an adjective, the term may describe an object associated with
Christianity. For many this also means to be a member or adherent of one of the organized religious denominations of Christianity. The term Christian means "belonging to
Christ" and is derived from the Greek noun Χριστός Khristós which means "anointed one," which is itself a translation of the
Hebrew word
Moshiach (Hebrew: משיח, also written "Messiah"), (and in Arabic it is pronounced Maseeh مسيح). According to the
New Testament, those who followed
Jesus as his
disciples were first called Christians by those who did not share their faith, in the city of
Antioch. Hebrew is one of the only known languages to not call Christians "Christians" but "
Nazarenes" (
Hebrew:
נוצרי Notzri), because Jesus was from the province of Nazareth, heance the name
Jesus of Nazareth or
ישוע "נצרת,
Yeshua Ha-Natzerat in Hebrew). Also, because calling Christians "Christians" is like the Jews saying
followers of the Messiah, and Jesus being the Messiah of the Jews is considered
heresy, so Jews rarely, particularly Israelis never say Jesus Christ in Hebrew because that would be heresy to the most ultra-orthodox Jews. Israelis and others who speak hebrew just say
ישו (
Yeshu in Hebrew) when referring to Jesus. Xian or Xtian is another word that has been used to describe Christians and is similar to using
Xmas in place of
Christmas; the X or Xt used as a contraction for "Christ" ("X" resembles the Greek letter Χ (Chi), the first letter of "Christ" in Greek (Χριστός [Christos]). Some Christians find these terms offensive and equate it to taking Christ out of the term.
The term "Christian" is used by various groups with diverse beliefs to describe themselves. Some people, including many
born-again Christians, use a fairly specific definition of "Christian". They believe that in order to be a Christian, one must follow Jesus, and that the proof of this is found in agreeing to and following the doctrines set forth in their interpretation of the
Bible.
Many Christians are grouped into ecclesial communities called
denominations which are separated by certain aspects of their respective beliefs and theologies. The liturgical denominations, including
Eastern and
Oriental Orthodoxy,
Roman and
Eastern Catholicism,
Anglicanism, and
Lutheranism, along with many constituent components of the reformed traditions of
Presbyterianism,
Methodism,
Moravianism, et al., teach that the title Christian is honorificly bestowed upon those who have accepted the command of
Jesus Christ (in ) to "take up your cross and follow me", and that the public mark of a Christian is to receive the sacrament of
Baptism, in the name of the
Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Many denominations advocate
infant baptism, in addition to that of adult converts.
Others who refer to themselves as Christians require only that one believes that Jesus is the
Son of God, that he died and was resurrected from the dead. Certain other denominations (The
Church of Christ,
International Churches of Christ, and the
Independent Christian Churches) teach that the definition of a Christian is someone who has been
baptized as a repenting adult. For them, adult baptism is the transition from non-Christian to Christian. These varying definitions arise from different biblical interpretations and differences regarding the authority of scripture in the
bible in context with tradition.
A small but significant minority of ecclesiastical groups are often referred to as Christian, whose creeds consider
Jesus to be theologically significant but not God. Movements along these lines include
Jehovah's Witnesses, see also
Nontrinitarianism.
Followers of
Serapis were called Christians as demonstrated in a letter from Emperor Adrian to Servianus, 134 A.D. (Quoted by Giles, ii p86)
Egypt, which you commended to me, my dearest Servianus, I have found to be wholly fickle and inconsistent, and continually wafted about by every breath of fame. The worshipers of Serapis (here) are called Christians, and those who are devoted to the god Serapis (I find), call themselves Bishops of Christ.Early times
Church is taken by some to refer to a single, universal community, although others contend that the doctrine of the universal church was not established until later. The doctrine of the universal, visible church was made explicit in the
Apostles' Creed, while the less common
Protestant notion of the universal, invisible church is not laid out explicitly until the
Reformation. The universal church traditions generally espouse that the Church includes all who are baptized into her common faith, including the doctrines of the trinity, forgiveness of sins through the sacrificial action of Christ, and the resurrection of the body. These teachings are expressed in liturgy with the celebration of
sacraments, visible signs of
grace. They are passed down as the
deposit of faith.
Some minority traditions of Christianity have maintained that the word translated "church" in scripture most often properly refers to local bodies or assemblies. "Church" is a derivative of the Late Greek word "κυριακον", meaning Lord's house, which in
English became "church". The
Koine word for church is εκκλησία (ecclesia). Before Christian appropriation of the term, it was used to describe purposeful gatherings, including the assemblies of many Greek city states. Christians of this stripe maintain that a centralizing impulse in the church, present from the early days of the church through the rise of Constantine, represented a departure from true Christianity. They therefore reject the authority of the Nicene Creed or the Apostles' Creed.
The first millennium
Christian spirituality blossomed in the
Roman Empire between
64 and
313 AD in spite of official efforts to suppress it. The earliest record of the use of the term is by
Tacitus when he recorded that
Nero blamed the "Christians" for the
Great Fire of Rome in
64 AD. Sometime around
200 AD, one leader,
Tertullian, is quoted as saying, "The blood of the martyrs is the seed [of the Church]" to account for this phenomenon of
persecution of Christians.
Eusebius' Ecclesiastical History 2.25[
1] recorded: "The Roman Tertullian is likewise a witness of this. He writes as follows: "Examine your records. There you will find that Nero was the first that persecuted this doctrine, particularly then when after subduing all the east, he exercised his cruelty against all at Rome. We glory in having such a man the leader in our punishment. For whoever knows him can understand that nothing was condemned by Nero unless it was something of great excellence."" In 313 AD, the
Edict of Milan ended official persecution, and under the
Emperor Constantine, Christians acquired powerful political influence, the results of which are controversial to this day, beginning with Constantine's
First Council of Nicaea, sometimes called the
Constantinian shift. In 390,
Theodosius the Great declared Catholic Christianity the
state religion of the empire (Codex Theodosianus).
Christians developed hierarchical structures to lead the visible Church over the course of many centuries. From the early formation of the Church until the
Great Schism in
1054 AD, virtually all Christians subsisted within one Church as one visible organization, led locally by bishops, and regionally by patriarchs. However, minor divisions occurred over differences in doctrine as early as the
Council of Chalcedon, and continued through the progression of
ecumenical councils.
Medieval times
In Medieval
Europe, the
Roman Catholic Church was at its peak of Apostolic flourishment and spirituality. Not only was the Church and its organizations extremely devoted to Christianity, piously spreading the word of God through missionaries and established monastaries in many countries but through its dominant spiritual influence that eventually rivalled the political power of most
Monarchs for support of the population. The majority of people of this age devoted their lives to God and it showed by the donations of land, money, and possessions to the church. In time, this made the
Pope an important figure in the life of the
continent.
This wealth often expressed itself in the building of beautiful
cathedrals which showed their great devotion and adoration to God. The Church's
monasteries were seats of learning and study which evolved into modern
universities. They also provided the first
hospitals for the care of the sick.
Modern times
The history of the Christian
faith in modern times must be studied movement by movement, such is its diversity. In the
West, the
Protestant Reformation profoundly conditioned the relationship between church and state, thus bringing to Christianity the idea of self-interpretation and the denouncement of visible unity. Intellectual pressure from the
Enlightenment led to a religious reaction in the
North American colonies — called the
Great Awakening — to which Protestant North American Christians owe much of their pattern of practice.
Widespread Christian
missions, founded by all segments of Christianity in response to the command of Jesus in
Matthew 28:19-20 (also known as the
Great Commission), have created today's situation in which Christians are to be found in almost every part of the world.
Within Christian communities there are members who devote themselves to active participation in
prophetic communication and
miraculous healing (and anything else considered to be a 'spiritual gift') as represented in the early church, the pre-Christ
prophets and in the Bible (most notably in the book of Acts). They are categorized as Charismatic Christians.
The opposing view is cessationalism. This was made popular in post-reformation times to discount several Roman Catholic Church Doctrines. The protestants claimed they had no biblical basis, but the Catholic church responded by saying that it was told to them through a prophetic message (specifically an apparition of Mary, or vision of Mary mother of Jesus). Certain protestants then responded by saying they were just 'making it up' but had no way of saying this with authority without having their own prophetic message (leaving the problem of 'who do we believe' open), so they decided to say that the power of the holy spirit (that they agree had been with the early church), left when the last apostle died. However not all protestants held this view point.
There are of course various other (some older) versions of cessationalism, (including that held by christadelphians) although some tend to use different names. In some cases the one belief (charismatic or cessationalist) will occupy the entire denomination as doctrine, most famously in the
Pentecostal movement (founded on such charismatic principles), whilst other churches allow a more liberal view as to how widely these 'gifts of the holy spirit' are present in the modern church. Consequently there are charismatic Catholics and Anglicans, as well as the cessationalist counter-parts. Indeed the so called 'charismatic movement' began in high churches first, despite being attributed to more low-church style of worship.
Other movements within contemporary Christendom include the
emergent church,
fundamentalism, return to
orthodoxy,
messianic Judaism, liberalism, and the home church movement.
The life of a Christian is still characterized by faith in the figure of
Jesus as represented in the
New Testament.
Sacraments aside, the concept of
grace is still uniquely Christian: the idea that spiritual wholeness comes only as a result of a gift from God.
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Christian denominations*
Christian meditation*
Christianity*
Christianophobia*
Criticism of Christianity*
Jesus*
Jesus in the Christian Bible*
List of Christians*
Christianity, as defined by the
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Usage of "Christian" in the Bible
